The invention relates to a device for supporting objects so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation, particularly, display devices in motor vehicles.
Such devices are used, for example, for rotatably mounting the displays of navigation systems. In the Philips navigation system CARIN the display is mounted on the dashboard by means of a complex holder having two axes of rotation. Other manufacturers of navigation systems use ball-and-socket joints for mounting the display. Both solutions are intricate and expensive. In the case of both solutions it is difficult and troublesome to remove the display from the holder. In order to adjust the position of the display it is necessary to loosen screws or levers, which should be tightened again upon adjustment.
The present invention aims at providing a device of the type defined in the opening paragraph, which is simple and cheap and which enables the object to be removed simply and rapidly.
According to the invention this is achieved in that there has been provided a basic body having a recess which is open in a radial direction, there has been provided a rotary body adapted to be slid into the recess in a radial direction and to be rotatable in the recess, there has been provided a locking bracket by means of which the rotary body can be locked against radial movement in the recess, and the rotary body can be locked in rotation to the object in such a manner that the rotary body is rotated when the object is rotated in the basic body.
Locking in rotation is to be understood to mean that a rotation of the object directly brings about a rotation of the rotary body. This can be achieved, for example, in that the rotary body and the object are fixedly connected, for example screwed, to one another. However, locking in rotation can also be achieved in that, for example, the object comprises guide pins clamped or snapped into guide slots of the rotary body.
For rotatably supporting the object, the user slides the rotary body and the object, which has been locked in rotation to this body, by hand into the recess in the basic body in a radial direction, i.e. perpendicularly to the axis of rotation. Subsequently, the rotary body is locked against radial movement in the recess by means of the locking bracket, the rotary body and the object thus being rotatably held in the basic body.
This device can be manufactured simply and at low cost. The rotary body and the object can be removed from the basic body in a radial direction in that the locking bracket is swivelled away in a radial direction and can just as simply be refitted in the basic body in the reverse sequence.